SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: New Year Brings Protests and Violence in Wake of UNAMID Exit from Darfur

8/1/2021: Darfur Women's Action Group  – New Year Brings Protests and Violence in Wake of UNAMID Exit from Darfur

Citing ongoing violent attacks since the end of the UN-African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) mandate, the Darfur Women’s Action Group (DWAG) call for the international community and the US government to listen to the concern to the concerns of displaced Darfuris still living in refugee camps and fearing for their safety, and “recognise that the political aspirations of the interim government do not match the needs of the people.”

DWAG further call for the creation and enforcement of a civilian protection mandate that will last throughout the entirety of Sudan’s transitional period, alongside strong international presence with mechanisms for protection of human rights and verifiable measures to demonstrate progress across Sudan.

Finally, DWAG call for the Sudanese government to be urged to “stop Sudanese forces from further perpetuating violence and terror on vulnerable displaced communities.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Sudan 2021 budget approved by Council of Ministers

8/1/2021: Radio Dabanga - Sudan 2021 budget approved by Council of Ministers

 Radio Dabanga report that the Sudanese Council of Ministers has approved the 2021 National Budget, with government spending reduced by 24%.

Finance Minister Hiba Mohammed Ali said that education spending has increased 170% to taking up 12.5% of the budget, with spending on higher education and scientific research tripled. According to Ali, 24% of the budget will go towards social protection, including cash support for poor families. Subsidies for wheat, medicine, gas and electricity will also be retained.

 However, leaked contents of the Budget suggests that 1/3rd of public revenues will go towards the security and defence sector.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: New Humanitarian - New Humanitarian - Sudan’s revolution runs aground in Darfur

8/1/2020: New Humanitarian - Sudan’s revolution runs aground in Darfur, by Tom Gardner

In a feature piece, Tom Gardner quotes internally displaced persons in “troubled” western Darfur, where the “revolution is yet to be fully felt…where heavily-armed militia still terrorise civilians, hold on to land they have seized, and make reconciliation harder.“

IDP Adin Idriss blamed the government for “doing nothing” to stop the occupation of his old farm by Arab militiamen, preventing African tribes from arming themselves in self-defence without risking arrest.

However, an anonymous UN official said that the return of IDPs would refuel conflict. Sudan expert Alex de Waal elaborated that part of the solution will be the acceptance that Darfur’s “settlement patterns and demographics have changed for good,” citing “dramatic and accelerated urbanization.” Gardner adds that displacement camps now “resemble towns.”

Helen Young of Tufts University therefore calls for ways to also support poor Arab tribes to enable a peace settlement.